Category: Facebook

One of the most effective ways of engaging your audience is where you start the conversation and talk with clients about what they need and how your business can give them that.

Here’s how it works: You join groups which match your corporate vision on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

Creating the conversation allows you to help people with their problems, offer suggestions and so on, all for free. At some point it’s wise to offer a free giveaway, a special report of some kind, in exchange for people signing up for your list. Regardless of what method you use, it’s where you give the user valuable information for free and with a call to action back to your site, to learn more about what you’re doing.

Here’s how we did it using Facebook.

Note: the email signup part of what you need to do is detailed in another article. Continue reading

START YOUR FACEBOOK AD CAMPAIGN WITH A LEAD MAGNET

Before you start a Facebook ad campaign you must first consider what you are selling to your audience. Below is a checklist for creating the perfect lead magnet.

1 -Get Uber Specific

Your audience wants uber-specific solutions to their uber-specific problems. Pick your lead magnet apart and scrutinize your product. Treat it as if it’s not good enough and then move the free-line and don’t give them a bunch of sizzle and no steak. The value you’re giving should be your best product for free.

2- Get your whiskers out of the way

Referring to the Joe Polish, “I love marketing podcast” the whiskers n ‘cheese episode #024. Understand your actual value and that just because you think your product is great, the people who you’re marketing to, don’t know this…YET. So, yes, the actual value of your lead magnet must be high, so show them the cheese (e.g., your product) and make sure you’re delivering on your promises, otherwise you’ll lose their attention. Be a good kitty and don’t show your whiskers.

3- What is your one big promise?

Make good on your promises and deliver what you promise. Make one big promise and then chunk it down, instead of making a bunch of little promises to build it up to be a big hunkin’ sandcastle that’ll wash away with the tide. Read “The One Thing” by Gary Keller if you are in doubt.

4- What’s your end result?

What do they really want, these uber-specific, uber-busy, uber-metro-sexuals? If you figure out what they want at the time, (like Eben Pagan does when he opens his cart, crashes the servers and then apologizes that you can’t purchase his product anymore) and you know how to serve it to them on the platter they want, then they’ll gladly give you their attention, their contact information and especially their money.

Just like Rick James says. They don’t want to ask, “Why do I have to wait 7 days to get your information? Give me the goods now!” Don’t make them jump through six different clicks. It’s like being on hold with AT&T or Comcast., By the time you get there you’re so upset and freaked out that you hang up on the rep because they can’t give you what you want within a relatively sane period of time; like within 2 hours. Give them what they want right away. They’ll respect you for it.

6- Change their state of mind.

That lead magnet should change their mindset and get them used to doing business with your company. You want them to engage with you. If you’re a restaurant you should be posting at least 6-8x a day on your Facebook page to always create a sense of intrigue and information and engagement with your fans. Your fans are your brand advocates, your brand advocates are free advertising, and your free advertising helps you sell even more of your product. So, just by engaging with your fans and changing their mindset you get free advertising. Isn’t that cool?

7- How fast can they consume what you have to offer?

Your lead magnet should be able to be consumed quickly so as to not detract from your sales funnel. If they can’t eat what you have within a relatively short period of time and enjoy it, then you’re back to the drawing board. Make it easy for them to get what they came for in 5 mins or less.

8- Do you look like Walmart or Bergdorfs?

If it looks free…well, it is. You know, when things look free they look funky and this is not a good thing for your brand. Funky stuff is best left to Rick James, for you, make your goods have a higher perceived value than the next marketer and you’ll gain their confidence in you and your product.

After you get your lead magnet together, consider your ads. I’ll go over ad strategies in more depth in the upcoming Social Buzz University webinar. Here are some reasons your ad campaigns may be falling short. Don’t worry! Yes, you can fix it!!

Facebook Ad General Rules for Successful Campaigns

As a rule, I want to see a good measure of clicks and/or impressions on Facebook ads.

Anything less than 100-300 clicks isn’t telling you anything. Anything less than 5/10k impressions isn’t telling you anything.

Note: in Point #1 it might not always be obvious. I usually start out with a bid of $100 and then watch it closely if I’m doing CPC. So #1 is more the case with CPC. However, you may need to increase your budget with oCPM to get the initial impressions rolling in.

If you really pay attention to and follow these simple steps you can pick out exactly what’s going on and what you need to fix in relation to your projects. In general:

No Impressions = bid higher

Impressions & No Clicks = Ad Sucks

Impressions & Clicks & No Sales = Offer Sucks

Impressions & Sales & Clicks = Winner winner chicken dinner

If you’re not getting any clicks and no sales, then start over and if you’re getting clicks and no sales, you have the wrong offer for the audience or you are targeting the wrong market.

It’s easy, it’s valuable, and it’s stunningly FAST.

And if you’re planning to invest your savings and start a new business venture to pitch to qualified investors, spending some time on Facebook’s Ad Manager can make all the difference in having the compelling information you’ll need available at your fingertips.

Facebook’s Ad Manager is available to everyone who has a Facebook account, and to promote trial (and error) use of the self-serve ad manager, they make it free to use and access without ever spending any money.

To get started, you’ll have to answer a few unimportant questions; all answers lead to the ad generator and if you scroll down the page you can access the valuable “create your audience” targeting tool, that dynamically generates info about Facebook audience sizes available for marketing. Continue reading

Or… how to make a good electronic first impression

Technology has given us the capability to navigate on a global scale, download and upload information instantly from almost anywhere, text, send emails along with a full menu of digital options including thousands of “apps” to manage our lives with. Though we each have nearly unlimited capabilities as powerful transmitting stations, when it comes to processing and accurately discerning the intent of personal communications, we are often feeble receiving sets. In our haste to increase our technological fitness, we have allowed other aspects of meaningful communication to atrophy.

Psychologists say that non-verbal communication represents two-thirds of all communication. Experts even assign “channels” to non-verbal communication such as gestures and touch, posture, facial expression and eye contact. Others important aspects of communication include voice quality, rate, pitch and intonation. Think about this: every single one of those cues are absent in Social Media. The keyboard delivers the message, so we no longer even have the benefit of seeing someone’s handwriting.

That’s why social media etiquette should be a required course, not an elective, for everyone. From young people creating an immutable digital footprint to businesses communicating the essence of their brand, there are things you MUST know. The future of your online reputation depends on it.

The Hot Spots

A challenge in learning Social Media Manners is that the channels are proliferating like rabbits, and each channel has its own protocol.

To simplify, let’s consider a brief description of the largest channels. I compare the atmosphere of these channels to social situations you are familiar with.

Twitter is like an outdoor concert. It’s “come as you are”, noisy and busy.

FaceBook is like a big backyard barbecue. Dress is casual but you’re likely to encounter anyone from your grandmother to your boss.

Linked In is a virtual business convention. It’s rather formal; business attire & behavior expected.

Google Plus is like a trip to Starbucks. It’s popular with many, but not everyone hangs out there.

Pinterest is an art show. Some are there for pure art, some are there to make money and lots of people are just lookers. “Eclectic” describes this channel.

Instagram is like a photo shop where everyone is showing their favorite pictures.

Each of these varied environments come with expectations and protocol. The rules aren’t hard to learn. I’ll leave you with a few that apply across the board. Build the foundation well and then you can go as far and as high as you choose.

Start with the ABCs

As you arrive, take time to observe. Get a feel for the “room” rather than barging in boisterously.

Be yourself. Your best self. Take time to check grammar and spelling. And I may sound like your mother, but leave your cuss words at the door.

Caution is necessary regarding automation. It’s tempting to take shortcuts like services that post automated updates and allow you to buy followers. Not a good idea.

Beverly Lewis of BeverlySpeaks.com is a thriving entrepreneur, internet marketing strategist, speaker and business coach. As a creative and resourceful business growth expert, her goal is to help others develop and express their best gifts. She specializes in relationship marketing and has provided workshops and seminars on success & leadership for over 25 years. As CEO of BeverlySpeaks (Chief Encouragement Officer), she wears several hats, including “Joyologist”, Treasure Hunter and Mountain Mover. She lives in Florida with her husband of 34 years and loves to spend time with her family, including romping with her 3 young grandchildren.

Whether you are running a promotion for the first time or a seasoned pro, it’s time to Facebook promo ‘app up’ and make your promos Facebook compliant, but also save yourself time and money in the process.

A few years back Facebook decided on a set of rules regarding promotions and contests, one of which is the requirement to use an application (aka: app). Facebook’s Promotion Rules, when you cut to the chase, make sense and here is some insight as to why:

Facebook doesn’t want any connection to your contest, it’s in your hands, and yours to manage and ensure it meets external guidelines such as promotions laws. In addition, Facebook is a place where friends meet up, and to preserve this culture it is important to reduce unnecessary spam. Play within these rules and you have a magnificent opportunity to be a big hit on the world’s largest social stage.

So you’ve got your app in hand, actually installed directly to your Facebook page having automatically created a new tab in, oh, say 30 seconds. To get your contest up and running you create a nice graphic design max width of 810 px and upload it as a gif or jpg right into the app. Then you type directly or copy and paste your title and description and terms into the apps admin panel. The app supports some 23 languages so it’s quite versatile depending on where you are in the world.

Now you spend about 10 more minutes clicking a few boxes to activate the features you fancy, whether you are running a sweepstakes, quiz, photo contest, voting, etc. Next, select your start and end dates and voila your promotion is live and it looks great.

Your app will auto detect if users already like your page or not upon entry, and you can require non likers to like your page. Your entry form collects and captures entrant data in an exportable CSV file so you can load this information into your CRM or email program for further follow up and marketing activities.

Once your app is up and running you don’t have much to do other than ensure your time is spent on worthwhile promotion activities.

Some of the best promotion activities are completely out of your hands as your entrants make use of the ‘share features’ built right into the app. Conveniently located share buttons have your users sharing your contest via Twitter, Facebook, and email or other platforms in seconds and these shares can be attractive, eye catching and targeted to the right audience.

Respect Facebook’s rules

Be sure to stay within Facebook’s promotion rules and do not reward people for sharing. This is often overlooked by many admins. You can trust people will share. They have the tools all throughout the app but rewarding them to share is considered spamming and counter to the intent of Facebook. And if you create a voting contest your users will send messages to their friends to attract vote and your app can collect likes from these voters.

How to Make Your Promotion Work

In order to make your promotion work, you’ll need the following:

Graphic design to highlight the important aspects of your contest.

Title and description

Terms and Conditions – who can enter and win, contest limitations, process for selecting a winner, etc.

Prize(s)

Start and Finish date and time.

A plan to promote your promotion.

A means to pick your winner.

A great app that automates everything, gives you control over your user data and is compliant with Facebook rules.

Creativity and the ability to put yourself in the shoes of your entrants.

Not all contests are the same, meaning you should have the flexibility to run sweepstakes, or quiz’s or photo contests within the same app as well as easily select a variety of features by activating or deactivating them to suit your preferences.

If you are new to contests we suggest you start small, keep it basic and after one or two contests you will quickly grasp what does and doesn’t work, you’ll also get the creative juices flowing and see opportunities you didn’t previously see. Mixing up different types of promotions throughout the year is a healthy way to create engagement.

Where to Start?

A good example of starting small is to run a sweepstakes for a prize that is desirable to your audience. We’ve seen companies offer up a T-shirt with huge success. The prize doesn’t have to be a $1000 cash reward and sometimes a T-shirt type of prize is more suitable to attracting relevant audiences. It also doesn’t make sense to give away $1000 if you don’t have a large enough budget to do the types of promotional activities to really get the word out that your contest even exists.

Avoid getting trapped by tunnel vision.

Many admins focus one or two aspects of the contest or are emotionally overwhelmed by what they perceive to be restrictive Facebook rules.

For example, an admin may feel they didn’t receive enough entries to justify giving away an iPad. They didn’t believe or understand the contest is really truly in their control and that they could have simply stated in the terms and conditions 300 entrants are required for the contest to be valid.

When I explain this to admins, a light bulb goes off in their head as they realize they establish the terms of their contest, terms that make sense for their business.

Contests work!

We had an admin who created a winning contest by offering to give away a can of pet food to the local shelter for every entry in his contest. He figured he’d get 50 entrants. So rather than think to cap the contest at 50 entrants, 900 cans later he was the shelter’s best friend and scratching his head at the same time.

So, you as admin can set the rules as you deem necessary so you don’t extend yourself beyond your budget and you don’t give away the farm unless the results are there. It all depends on how you state your rules.

The important thing is to state what the contest represents and then represent the contest as you have stated it. If you say the winner will be selected on Tuesday the 2nd at 12:00 pm by a jury appointed by the admin then do exactly that. If you state otherwise, then follow your script.

More about Brian: Expert in the field of Facebook Promotions, Director North America Easypromos, supported over 60,000 promotions working with agencies and businesses of all sizes. Lover of the outdoors can be found in the forest or canoes and kayaks.